A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi were hearing multiple petitions questioning the procedure including timelines that is being followed in the intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
Kelkar said around 1,19,315 voters have been found untraceable during Kerala’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision(SIR) and that election officials are embarking on an effort to track down voters found untraceable during the enumeration phase.
"Planned disruptions are harmful to democracy; orderly conduct of legislative proceedings is paramount," Birla said at the 22nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in Kohima.
The ECI has a herculean task to cover over 1.62 lakh polling booths with 15.44 crore voters in just a month time.
Party officials and leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, CPI (M), Aam Aadmi Party and Apna Dal (S) were present in the meeting.
He informed that these parties have now ceased to be entitled to benefits available to political parties under Section 29B and Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
The move is part of the ECI's ongoing efforts to ensure that only active and legitimate political parties are registered with the commission.
Issuing notice and granting four weeks for replies, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked petitioner–advocate Ashwini Upadhyay to make all recognised and registered political parties respondents in the matter, noting that any directions would directly impact them.
In a press note issued on Monday, the ECI said it has conducted 4,719 structured meetings with political parties, including 40 meetings by Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs), 800 by District Election Officers (DEOs), and 3,879 by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).
Despite appointing over 1.6 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs), only nine objections have been filed by political parties, with the CPI(ML) Liberation being the sole party to raise concerns.
